Snapshot

VICTORIA JERRAM LIGHTING With a global portfolio across a variety of sectors, Victoria Jerram Lighting is a boutique lighting design consultancy founded 10 years ago to offer clients a bespoke service combining pragmatism and creativity.

Eglon House London, UK

Inspired by Pierre Chareau’s iconic Art Deco Parisian Masterpiece ‘Maison de Verre’, Eglon House is a work/live residence in North London designed by Chassay + Last Architects. Originally a stable block, the site has been a WWII war shell-casing factory, a dairy, a recording studio, and most recently the home of film director, Tim Burton. The modernist house incorporates 13,000sqft of living and work space across two structures facing each other across a private central courtyard, linked at basement level. The biggest challenge was to create a cohesive but flexible lighting system suitable for both home and work spaces that can be adapted to the different ceiling heights, while playing into its strong industrial aesthetic. A bespoke, museum-grade brass track and spotlighting system fitted the brief, its strong ceiling pattern echoing the grid structure of the façade, and the premium material provided a high-end finish that reflects the industrial elements of the interior scheme. Ambitious sustainability targets set by the client (BREEAM Excellent and Code for Sustainable Living Level 4) were achieved with the use of LED lamps, lighting controls with daylight and occupancy sensors as well as highly-efficient concealed LED strip lighting.

The Goring Hotel London, UK

The Goring Hotel is a 100-year-old, boutique, five-star hotel just behind Buckingham Palace. Jerram was originally brought in by interior designer Russell Sage to help create a glamorous new look for the reception and lobby, and has been advising the hotel on its lighting ever since. Flow was an important factor, and it was also essential that the lighting complemented the distinctive interior design. Floor level uplighters were used in doorways and warm dimmable LED coffer lighting made for a discreet but flexible arrangement that welcomes and draws guests in. Similarly, lighting the hotel’s plasterwork walls required a sensitive and creative approach but having explored various possible solutions, Jerram decided to treat the plasterwork as a piece of art and used artwork spots, aimed and focused to bring its fine detail to life. The client’s desire to create drama by lighting the bar from above was challenging because of the concrete ceiling and the requirement for no visible fixtures so Jerram brought Jeremy Goring and his bar consultant, Gorgeous Group, together to demonstrate that lighting the cocktails from below with miniature uplights set into a drip tray could achieve the required sense of theatre. The garden wasn’t originally included in the lighting brief, but Jerram realised that the Orangery’s glazing would create a blackhole effect, sucking up all the available light at night. Upgrading the exterior lighting solved this problem and also offered an opportunity to optimise guests’ enjoyment of the hotel’s gardens into the evening.

Arches of Oman Muscat, Oman

This water sculpture by Giles Rayner was commissioned by the Sultan of Oman as a backdrop for the Royal Opera House in Muscat. Two large stainless-steel tusks entwine themselves around one another to form a single 12-metre structure above a 25-metre pool. A seemingly simple sculpture, the shape is highly complex, matched in complexity by the interior housing 70 water jets within the tusks. This led to the decision at an early stage to light the sculpture from below and uplight the water jets. As the site is surrounded by an elevated highway, Jerram grazed the sculpture with close-offset floodlights mounted on the sculpture baseplate within the pool, to avoid glare. It’s a demanding site for lighting equipment with high temperatures, a wet location and a coastal environment. In addition, exacting requirements for beam angles (tailored to the sculpture), high light output (to reach 12-metres) and colours (RGB and pure white) meant an off-the-shelf specification was not available, so Jerram needed to find a supplier who could deliver all of this. Experience with materials was also key on this project. The artist had a very clear vision for the sculpture in daylight, achieved by a mirrored finish to the stainless steel, and wished to replicate the look at nighttime. Tests of various finishes convinced the team that a microtexture applied to the surface would deliver the required daytime look and effectively capture the artificial light at night.

Sofitel Brussels Europe Hotel Brussels, Belgium

Jerram designed the lighting for the renovation of the five-star Sofitel Brussels Europe Hotel in 2019. The renovation included the creation of a new restaurant, a modern Belgium brasserie. Design, local culture and gastronomy are three of the four guiding themes of Sofitel, the atrium Lounge expresses two of them while the restaurant achieves the third. The fourth theme of comfort runs throughout the project with soft lighting tuned to the time of day providing light just where it is needed. At the heart of the hotel is a triple height glass roof atrium and lighting the Lounge below at nighttime was an interesting challenge. A handpainted arboreal mural by a local artist “grows” up to the glass roof, and lighting this remarkable artwork was the starting point for the lighting scheme, which used many layers of light to create a warm, inviting space. Luscious planting continued the biophilic theme and created opportunities for touches of light to create playful shadows of the foliage. The introduction of a lighting control system and scene-sets created a more dynamic environment, able to vary the look and feel from diplomatic business lunches through to intimate dinners. Hotel projects typically run on tight timescales to minimise disruption to guests and this one was no exception with Jerram making finishing touches to the scene sets right up to the opening night.

Victoria Jerram Lighting

A Chartered Electronic Engineer with a Master’s degree in Light and Lighting, Jerram founded her consultancy a decade ago and has developed strong relationships with manufacturers, architects and clients alike. Her technical background is supported by meticulous attention to detail, an extensive product knowledge and a unique combination of pragmatism and creativity. She embraces a challenge and has built up a repertoire of innovative solutions over the last 10 years. Victoria Jerram Limited grew from a keen interest in lighting complex interior spaces and artworks, and now creates designs for a wide range of projects from residential and hospitality, through to commercial and landscape. www.victoriajerram.com